Thursday, June 28, 2012

NHL Awards Voting

I meant to post this last week, but... well, I just didn't get around to it. Here are the Kings who got votes for NHL awards this season:

Norris
•Willie Mitchell got one 5th place vote and finished and tied for 18th with a pair of Kevins, Vancouver's Bieksa and St. Louis's Shattenkirk
-Apparently, the members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association all believe that Michael Del Zotto is far better than any member of the best defensive corps in hockey. Interesting.

Lady Byng
•Anze Kopitar finished 19th in the voting with one each of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place votes, three 4th place votes, and a pair of 5th place votes
-Steal the Stanley Cup-winning puck and and PHWA will evidently see you as more gentlemanly than a guy who has had 56 PIM in the last 3 seasons. Patrick Elias finished in 7th. Before you tell me, I know that the voting is done before the playoffs, but still.
-I am still in shock that Crosby got a vote for this trophy. A 2nd place vote too. Must be a Pittsburgh writer.

Calder
•Slava Voynov came in 10th with a 3rd place, a 4th place, and 2 5th place votes.
-Frankly, I'm surprised anyone took note of him in his shortened season, but huzzah for the PHWA for at least giving him a few votes.

Vezina
•Jonathan Quick came in 2nd behind Lundqvist with six 1st place votes, nine 2nd place, and six more 3rd place votes.
-This was the closest a King came to winning an award this season (other than the Conn Smythe) and the GMs dropped the ball here. You can see the east coast bias in the vote totals. Quick got only 21 total votes, whereas every GM in the NHL voted for Lundqvist, 17 of them putting him in first place. Oh well, there will be plenty more chances for Johnny with his new 10-year contract extension!

Selke
•Kopitar finished 9th with 62 points and not a single first place vote among his 20.
-I think after how great he was in the playoffs, his profile will have increased next season to the point that he is a finalist, though he may still not win.
•Mike Richards took 28th place with 11 points, two 4th and five 5th place votes.
-The best one-two two-way centers in the NHL and this is the thanks they get? Somehow Alex Burrows is a better defensive forward than Mike Richards? Maybe the PHWA was mistaken and thought this was an award for best diver?
•Jarret Stoll came in tied with David Bolland of the Blackhawks for 39th with one 4th place vote.
•Dustin Brown found himself in a big tie for 43rd with one 5th place vote.

Hart
•Quick came in 5th, garnering only a single 1st place vote to go along with two 2nd place, 14 3rd place, 11 4th place, and 17 5th place votes.
-This one shocked me. One of the big talking points of the season was how bad the Kings' offense was and how good Jonathan Quick had to be to get them into the playoffs. But when it came time to vote for the MVP (which in the NHL is defined as "most valuable player to his team"), the PHWA just gave it to the guy who scored the most points. Hell, as this article in The Province points out, Stamkos probably had more right to the Hart than Malkin based on how much rarer a 60-goal season is than a 100-point campaign (http://blogs.theprovince.com/2012/06/21/quirks-in-the-nhl-awards-voting/).
-Hart voting was stupid this year. It should have been either Quick or Lundqvist.

Jack Adams and GM of the Year
•HAHA not a single vote for the coach and GM of the Stanley Cup Champs!

I may go back and get vote totals for every King ever if I can find them, but for now, those are the 2012 vote-getters.